Canadian peace and environment
activist Dr Joan Elizabeth Russow (born Ottawa, November 1, 1938) is a peace
activist, a former national leader of
the Green Party of Canada from 1997 to 2001 and a co-founder of the Ecological
Rights Association and the Global Compliance Research Project (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Russow
)

Dr Joan Russow with Richard Levicki, Global
Compliance Research, “Submission to the Copenhagen Conference on Climate
Change: Time to be bold” …16 November 2009: “Overview. The time for
procrastination about climate change has long since passed; the world is in a
state of emergency and further inaction is gross negligence. The actual
and anticipated impacts of climate change as well as the unintended
consequences of climate change, and the short-term and long-term effects that
are known and yet to be known have all contributed to the state of emergency.
Any denial of the state of emergency is eclipsed by the moral imperative, and
legal imperative. to abide by the precautionary principle… As stated in the
precautionary principle in the United Nations Framework on Climate Change
[UNFCCC], the lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason
for postponing methods to address the threat… Because of the global urgency, there
must be the political will to strive to contain the rise in temperature to less than 1oC above the pre-industrial
levels and strict time frames must be imposed , so that overall global emissions
will begin to be reversed as of 2010. There
must be a global target of 30% below 1990 by 2015, 50% below by 2020, 75% by 2030,
85% by 2040 and 100% below by 2050, while adhering t the precautionary
principle, the differentiated responsibility principle, and the fair and just transition
principle. Under the Framework Convention, every state signatory incurred the
responsibility to conserve carbon sinks; thus the destruction of sinks, including
deforestation and the elimination of bogs must end. Most scientific work today
has become tied to the failing negotiations and is based in keeping the risk of
a rise in temperature above 2oC
at about 5-40%. The proposal submitted here by the Global Compliance Research
Project is based on trying to avoid a temperature above 1oC and
returning atmosphere CO2 back to 278 ppm in line with the obligations outlined
in the UNFCCC [UN Framework Convention on Climate Change] by 2050 and bringing risk
down to a minimum. If the dangerous level is to be avoided, emissions pathways to
eliminate CO2 must arrive at the pre-industrial level of 278 ppm at least by
2050. [Currently under consideration as a target. To succeed in being below the
dangerous 1oC, member states of the United Nations must commit to
remove between 1105 GT CO2 and 1842 GT CO2 from the atmosphere (Table 1) …].
[1].